Era: Baroque
Year: Multiple works, but 1725 for Alster-Ouvertüre
Form: Orchestral Suite & Concerto
Score: 82
Thoughts: At first this seemed like something I might find more powerful/interesting for Telemann, but on my third listen it's really been solidified to me that Telemann was great for his time. He might even be the poster boy of Baroque music... he does all the right things and plays by all the right rules. But he's flat as hell. It's "merely" entertainment. I've yet to really find anything intriguing, even if mildly enjoyable.
James Manheim, AllMusic:
Quote:
This work, described by conductor and composer Gunther Schuller as "a tour de force of orchestration and ingenuity," was written around 1725 for the unusual combination of four horns, two oboes, bassoon, and two violins; it has also been performed by larger Baroque orchestral ensembles. As the title suggests, the work is a programmatic depiction of Alster Lake and its surroundings, near Hamburg. The nine movements of this suite contain quite a variety of imaginative sound effects. One depicts swans floating on the lake's surface; another uses the horns to evoke cannon fire. There are echo effects, suggestions of mythological themes associated with the area, and imitations of frogs and crows that will raise a smile from an audience every time. Especially notable is the movement entitled "Village Music of the Alster Shepherds," which contains a panoply of wrong notes and other forms of musical noise. A forerunner of Mozart's Ein musikalischer Spass (A Musical Joke), it likewise depicts the musical malfeasance of an ill-trained band of small-town players. Given that Telemann's music remained well known into the 1770s, it is tempting to wonder whether Mozart might have modeled his own parody on this work. Although not one of Telemann's best-known pieces, the Alster Echo holds considerable appeal both for specialists interested in the nature of Baroque musical allusion and for general audiences interested in having a good time. [list=][/list]
Era: Baroque
Year: 1725 for Clavierbuchlien für Anna Magdalena
Form: Keyboard Music (many forms) - Domestic Music
Score: 90
Thoughts: While often simple, these are often some of my most cherished recordings of Bach. Particularly the Musette in D Major. I have a Glenn Gould recording of these, but liked how this one was more comprehensive and imo properly made the melodies what they are: playful.
Era: Baroque
Year: 1724
Form: Passion or Oratorio
Score: 85
Thoughts: Hard to say if I like this a lot more than the Matthäus-Passion because it was shorter or if the performance was better quality (regardless of the music), or what, but this was much more intriguing to me, even if Matthäus-Passion had a recurring famous theme to it. The diction is more clear to understand what they are saying, and the recording is in the same location that it debuted by Bach himself. It's a fine recording. The music itself seem less restricted and more vibrant.
Das Werk, das Thomaskantor Johann Sebastian Bach für den Karfreitag des Jahres 1724 komponierte, fesselt auch drei Jahrhunderte nach seiner Uraufführung in Leipzig Hörer und Musiker gleichermaßen. Unter der Leitung von Frauenkirchenkantor Matthias Grünert erklang das Meisterwerk am Karfreitag 2017 in der Dresdner Frauenkirche und liegt nun als hochqualitativer Live-Mitschnitt auf Doppel-CD vor.
Same venue/group, but from the Weihnachtsoratorium:
Era: Baroque
Year: 1723
Form: Cello Suite
Score: 90
Thoughts: While there are many good interpretations of this piece, Yo-Yo Ma's emotional and playful interpretation is rarely bested. His tone is nearly always the most warm. Bach continues to clean my brain and uplift me.
From Wikipedia:
Quote:
The six Cello Suites, BWV 1007-1012, are suites for unaccompanied cello by Johann Sebastian Bach. They are some of the most frequently performed and recognizable solo compositions ever written for cello. Bach most likely composed them during the period 1717–23, when he served as Kapellmeister in Köthen. The title given on the cover of the Anna Magdalena Bach manuscript was Suites à Violoncello Solo senza Basso (Suites for cello solo without bass).
These suites for unaccompanied cello are remarkable in that they achieve the effect of implied three- to four-voice contrapuntal and polyphonic music in a single musical line.[1] As usual in a Baroque musical suite, after the prelude which begins each suite, all the other movements are based around baroque dance types;[2] the cello suites are structured in six movements each: prelude, allemande, courante, sarabande, two minuets or two bourrées or two gavottes, and a final gigue.[3] The Bach cello suites are considered to be among the most profound of all classical music works.[4][5][6] Wilfrid Mellers described them in 1980 as "Monophonic music wherein a man has created a dance of God."[7][2]
Due to the works' technical demands, étude-like nature, and difficulty in interpretation because of the non-annotated nature of the surviving copies, the cello suites were little known and rarely publicly performed until they were revived and recorded by Pablo Casals in the early 20th century. They have since been performed and recorded by many renowned cellists and have been transcribed for numerous other instruments; they are considered some of Bach's greatest musical achievements.[6]
About the structure:
Quote:
Prelude – a suite might be started by a prelude, a slow piece written in an improvisatory style. Some Baroque preludes were not fully written out; instead, a sequence of chords were indicated, with the expectation that the instrumentalist would be able to improvise a melodic part using the indicated harmonic framework. The prelude was not based on a type of dance.
Allemande – Often the first dance of an instrumental suite, the allemande was a very popular dance that had its origins in the German Renaissance era. The allemande was played at a moderate tempo and could start on any beat of the bar.[28][29]
Courante – The second dance is the courante, a lively, French dance in triple meter. The Italian version is called the corrente.[28][29]
Sarabande – The sarabande, a Spanish dance, is the third of the four basic dances, and is one of the slowest of the baroque dances. It is also in triple meter and can start on any beat of the bar, although there is an emphasis on the second beat, creating the characteristic 'halting', or iambic rhythm of the sarabande.[28][29]
Gigue – The gigue is an upbeat and lively baroque dance in compound meter, typically the concluding movement of an instrumental suite, and the fourth of its basic dance types. The gigue can start on any beat of the bar and is easily recognized by its rhythmic feel. The gigue originated in the British Isles. Its counterpart in folk music is the jig.
Era: Baroque
Year: 1722
Form: Prelude and Fugue (keyboard music)
Score: 90
Thoughts: Wow. 4.5 hours, but I did it. This is a bit like Telemann's Tafelmusik (in the sense that it is a massive work), but much heavier and quality and not meant to be "nice" diner music, rather almost a playbook for lovers of the keys. According to wikipedia it was published with this statement from Bach: "composed "for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study." This definitely would push a student and a listener, as the works "test" all 12 keys of the major and minor (so 24 in total)... 2x (48 sets of Preludes and Fugues). One was published in 1722 and two was published in the 1740s. There were times when I was quite entranced and other times when it was a bit of brain cleaning and rarely in these 4.5 hours did I feel the music was cheap.
From Grammophone:
Quote:
Author: Guest
Richter’s Bach holds an unassailable place in the pantheon. His clarity of polyphonic texturing combines with insight into the structural flow to produce the illusion of total identity with the music’s inner world.
Revelation do not claim these as live recordings, and certainly the level of accuracy suggests that they cannot be. Yet if they are not, it is curious that several tracks are accompanied by steady (though unobtrusive) coughing, that the first Prelude comes with the faint but unmistakable distraction of a telephone ringing, and that the G major Fugue has a couple of badly scrambled bars near the end (from 1'55'') which cry out for a retake. Above all there is an edgy intensity to much of the playing which suggests a live situation and which is not to be found on Richter’s other accounts listed above.
Those feel generally more reflective, less extreme. On the new CDs Richter’s concentration in the slowest fugues is almost fanatically fierce, the fastest preludes (C minor, B flat major) are so hard-driven as to be almost obsessional, and some fugues (such as the C minor) have a staccato peckiness that might be better suited to Shostakovich. At such times I turned with relief to my much treasured and little hailed Feinberg set. Yet the depth and breadth of Richter’s understanding generally make niggles about style seem nugatory. In the E flat minor Prelude, for instance, he weighs every chord for its meaning, not in a coldly premeditated way, but simply so as to take us on an absorbing journey through the product of a great musical mind.
The comparative Richter versions are in fact the same recording, made in the Klessheim Castle in Salzburg in July 1970, where the sound is superior, avoiding the considerable acoustic fuzz on Revelation, and the Bosendorfer instrument, placed in a generous but not overpowering ambience, is far more beguiling. By comparison the sound image on the new CDs is awkwardly recessed and constricted, and the piano itself tends towards tinniness. The Chant du Monde comes without booklet-essay, and the absence of the first note of the first Prelude doesn’t inspire confidence; RCA offer the complete 48 in a four-disc package. As a general recommendation I would stick with the RCA set; but I wouldn’t have missed the extra intensity on the Revelation discs for the world.'
Era: Baroque
Year: 1722
Form: Sonata
Score: 88
Thoughts: I was quite taken back by this. Usually when I listen to a "no-name" composer, the quality is decidedly less awesome. The test of time has more or less forgotten them. But I have not ever heard of this composer before and found this fantastic. The melodies, dynamics, and dancing of the instruments was quite fantastic. Maybe I had low expectations and this surprised. Highly recommend for those that like baroque music and haven't heard this composer. It might also be the recording - sometimes awesome compositions have a crap recording and mediocre compositions have fantastic recordings and that's what makes the difference.
GRAMOPHONE: Nicholas Anderson
Quote:
Zelenka's six sonatas for two oboes, bassoon and continuo are among the most rewarding and at times most difficult pieces of baroque chamber music in the oboe repertory. Twenty years ago Heinz Holliger, Maurice Bourgue and Klaus Thunemann made a fine recording of them for Archiv. Those performances on modern instruments were followed by two other recordings during the 1980s, Burkhard Glaetzner, Ingo Goritzki and Knut Sonstevold, also playing modern instruments (Capriccio) and Paul Dombrecht, Marcel Ponseele and Danny Bond playing period instruments (Accent). All these, in their different ways were accomplished and enjoyable. But for sheer elan and spirit the baroque instrumental players on the new disc take some beating. The present recital contains only three of the six sonatas, and another volume, completing the set, is on its way. Meanwhile, this new release from Astree Auvidis is well worth acquiring. The members of Ensemble Zefiro may be known to assiduous Gramophone readers in other contexts—the bassoonist Alberto Grazzi, for instance, currently plays with The English Concert.
Zelenka's writing is sometimes highly idiosyncratic but seldom fails to engage the interest of a listener. He wrote these pieces in Vienna in about 1715 when he was in his late thirties. Technically, the writing is advanced and, as I have implied, full of character. Some of the passagework is incredibly exacting as you will quickly find out if you either sit down to listen to, or even more, to play the Allegro finale of the Sixth Sonata. Indeed, pieces demanding such virtuosity from these instruments were probably without precedent at the time. We can only speculate as to the circumstances which led to their composition but the writing is often such as to make us wonder if they were destined for friends or enemies of the composer.
Here, then, is splendidly invigorating playing of music which offers a great deal beyond face value. The sounds of the solo instruments themselves, together with an effective continuo group of double-bass, harpsichord/organ and theorbo are admirably captured in the recording.'
Era: Baroque
Year: 1721-1730
Form: Orchestral Suites (or as Bach called them Overtures, even if that's just the first movement) and Concertos
Score: 90
Thoughts: This is a fantastic HIP recording of both the orchestral suites (1724-1730) and the Brandenburg Concertos (published 1721). I often got the impression this could be considered a mold upon which the symphony and other modern works built upon. I heard lots of early classical music in this, especially Mozart and Haydn. Also this whole thing is an explosion of beautiful melodies and harmonies. Form and beauty.
Few musical works are as loved--and as often performed--as the six "Brandenburg" Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach. These six works display a lighter side of Bach's imperishable genius. Yet they came into being as an unexpected gift. That's what happened in 1721 when Bach presented the Margrave of Brandenburg with a bound manuscript containing six lively concertos for chamber orchestra, works based on an Italian Concerto Grosso style. The Margrave never thanked Bach for his work--or paid him. There's no way he could have known that this gift--later named the Brandenburg Concertos--would become a benchmark of Baroque music and still have the power to move people almost three centuries later. On this edition of Performance Today's Milestones of the Millennium, we explore how Bach's genius opened up a vivid new world of music for chamber orchestra.
The Brandenburg Concertos are a highlight of one of the happiest and most productive periods in Bach's life. At the time he wrote them, Bach was the Kapellmeister--the music director--in the small town of Coethen, where he was composing music for the court. Since the Margrave of Brandenburg seems to have ignored Bach's gift of concertos, it's likely that Bach himself presided over the first performances at home in Coethen. They didn't have a name then; that didn't come until 150 years later, when Bach's biographer Philipp Spitta called them "Brandenburg" Concertos for the very first time, and the name stuck.
Even though he didn't call them the "Brandenburgs," Bach still thought of them as a set. What he did was compile them from short instrumental sinfonias and concerto movements he had already written. Then he re-worked the old music, often re-writing and elaborating where he saw fit. In doing so, Bach created something of a dramatic arc from the brilliant first concerto to the last, which evokes a spirited chase.
Each of the six concertos requires a different combination of instruments as well as some highly skilled soloists. The Margrave had his own small court orchestra in Berlin, but it was a group of mostly mediocre players. All the evidence suggests that these virtuosic Brandenburg concertos perfectly matched the talents of the musicians on hand in Coethen. So how did a provincial town get so many excellent musicians? Just before Johann Sebastian arrived in Coethen in 1717, a new king inherited the throne in Prussia. Friedrich Wilhelm I became known as the "Soldier King" because he was interested in the military strength of his kingdom, not in refined artistic pursuits. One of his first royal acts was to disband the prestigious Berlin court orchestra. That threw many musicians out of work, and as luck would have it, seven of the best ones were snatched up to work in Coethen by its music-loving Prince Leopold. That's why Bach found such a rich music scene when he started to work there. It gave him the luxury of writing for virtuosos and they let him push the boundraries of his creativity. Concerto No. 2, for example, has the trumpeter play high flourishes. No. 4 allows the solo violin to soar.
When Bach played chamber music, he usually took the viola part so he could sit--as he wrote in a letter--"in the middle of the harmony." But for the Concerto No. 5 he had a real inspiration. He switched to harpsichord, gave it a knock-out part and, in the process, invented the modern keyboard concerto. The writing is so advanced and so intricate for its time that scholars assume the Fifth Concerto is actually the last Brandenburg Concerto Bach wrote.
If the dazzling writing style of the Fifth Concerto points to a late composition date, the Sixth Concerto probably came first in chronological order. It's got a simple part for the viola da gamba, a forerunner of the cello, which Bach probably put there for his employer, Prince Leopold, to play. The Prince was wealthy man and a serious music lover but probably a performer of only modest talent. The Sixth is also unique in the set because Bach omitted the violins from the ensemble; the violas take the highest string part. All six Brandenburg Concertos reveal the ebullient side of Bach, and they're one of the most welcome gifts he left us.
Era: Baroque
Year: 1733
Form: Table Music (music to be played at banquets/feasts)
Score: 82
Thoughts: I've listened to a couple different recordings on this and then also found there's the 4 hour version and then the zusammenfassung. I really want to get into Telemann, but I really am struggling to find anything great. I was hoping this would get me there as it's one of his more well known works. Handel stole directly from it (as a form of respect in those days) and it is indeed nicely arranged, etc., but that's just it... it's music for a feast. Like, when was the last time you fell in love with background music? Idk... I tried, but really am not finding anything terribly intriguing about Telemann's music. He as a person appears to have been incredibly important in his time, but his music by itself just doesn't do anything for me - other than be nice background music as I write this. I'm glad I listened to it and it is indeed pleasant, but lacks any depth to want me to come back for more.
Of course this guy has nicer things to say:
Quote:
James Manheim -AllMusic.com
Georg Philipp Telemann's Tafelmusik is a collection of orchestral and chamber music in three large parts, each consisting of half a dozen works. It contains plenty of colorful music that's often heard by the piece, and the entire set, covering four CDs, represents a serious investment of time and money, even at the discounted price of this Harmonia Mundi release. Yet there's a strong case that a good Baroque music collection and certainly a library should contain a copy of the whole set, as indeed many collections did in the middle of the 18th century. The work's title and concept are modest: Tafelmusik means "table music," and each work in the individual sets is meant to correspond with a course of a meal. But the utilitarian veneer conceals an ambitious and synoptic work. The booklet notes (in French, English, and German) goes into quite a bit of detail: not only did Telemann participate in the ongoing effort to reconcile and combine the French and Italian styles, he also deepened his stylistic survey in several other ways. Most strikingly, he wrote French works with Italian elements, and vice versa. The Overture in D major that opens Part II (CD 2, tracks 10-14) is ostensibly a French form, but its individual movements avoid dance movements and instead exploit the group contrasts of Italian music. Further, the combination of orchestral and chamber music, which Telemann explicitly specified (and which ought to give pause to groups that automatically assume small ensembles are best), is unusual in itself. On top of all this, the occasional dashes of Polish folk rhythms (try the finale of the Quartet in D minor, CD 2, track 18 ) and the appearance of the new genres of sinfonia and quartet all combine to give the collection, taken as a whole, a brilliantly kaleidoscopic quality. The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra simply does not have a weak point in addressing the set's many demands. Vivacious soloists, crisp orchestral ensemble work, a certain feel for Telemann's pure flair: it's all here, and with absolutely top-notch sound, it adds up to a must-have for serious Baroque enthusiasts.
I loved Telemann when I first started exploring baroque music, but now I think that was because I was a serving the form and has good at the form. But now, I also find little reason to listen to him other than as a history lesson or maybe a purely intellectual exercise. He certainly lacks any element of the playfulness you referenced in Couperin. The stereotypical pedantic German. On paper, it's all good, but to the ear, or more importantly, to the soul, something seems to be missing.
Era: Baroque
Year: 1723
Form: Cello Suite
Score: 90
Thoughts: While there are many good interpretations of this piece, Yo-Yo Ma's emotional and playful interpretation is rarely bested. His tone is nearly always the most warm. Bach continues to clean my brain and uplift me.
From Wikipedia:
Quote:
The six Cello Suites, BWV 1007-1012, are suites for unaccompanied cello by Johann Sebastian Bach. They are some of the most frequently performed and recognizable solo compositions ever written for cello. Bach most likely composed them during the period 1717–23, when he served as Kapellmeister in Köthen. The title given on the cover of the Anna Magdalena Bach manuscript was Suites à Violoncello Solo senza Basso (Suites for cello solo without bass).
These suites for unaccompanied cello are remarkable in that they achieve the effect of implied three- to four-voice contrapuntal and polyphonic music in a single musical line.[1] As usual in a Baroque musical suite, after the prelude which begins each suite, all the other movements are based around baroque dance types;[2] the cello suites are structured in six movements each: prelude, allemande, courante, sarabande, two minuets or two bourrées or two gavottes, and a final gigue.[3] The Bach cello suites are considered to be among the most profound of all classical music works.[4][5][6] Wilfrid Mellers described them in 1980 as "Monophonic music wherein a man has created a dance of God."[7][2]
Due to the works' technical demands, étude-like nature, and difficulty in interpretation because of the non-annotated nature of the surviving copies, the cello suites were little known and rarely publicly performed until they were revived and recorded by Pablo Casals in the early 20th century. They have since been performed and recorded by many renowned cellists and have been transcribed for numerous other instruments; they are considered some of Bach's greatest musical achievements.[6]
About the structure:
Quote:
Prelude – a suite might be started by a prelude, a slow piece written in an improvisatory style. Some Baroque preludes were not fully written out; instead, a sequence of chords were indicated, with the expectation that the instrumentalist would be able to improvise a melodic part using the indicated harmonic framework. The prelude was not based on a type of dance.
Allemande – Often the first dance of an instrumental suite, the allemande was a very popular dance that had its origins in the German Renaissance era. The allemande was played at a moderate tempo and could start on any beat of the bar.[28][29]
Courante – The second dance is the courante, a lively, French dance in triple meter. The Italian version is called the corrente.[28][29]
Sarabande – The sarabande, a Spanish dance, is the third of the four basic dances, and is one of the slowest of the baroque dances. It is also in triple meter and can start on any beat of the bar, although there is an emphasis on the second beat, creating the characteristic 'halting', or iambic rhythm of the sarabande.[28][29]
Gigue – The gigue is an upbeat and lively baroque dance in compound meter, typically the concluding movement of an instrumental suite, and the fourth of its basic dance types. The gigue can start on any beat of the bar and is easily recognized by its rhythmic feel. The gigue originated in the British Isles. Its counterpart in folk music is the jig.
I hear genius... indeed perfection, in most Bach, even his relatively neglected works. But with all that great music in so many, often complex forms, the cello suites sometimes seem the most amazing of all. A single, solo cello... all alone... hardly a recipe for stirring music! But Bach makes these the very essence of sublime perfection. It's an even more extreme example of how the same guy who wrote the massively epic Choral 9th symphony also wrote the delicate little Fur Elise and they both rule.
Era: Baroque
Year: 1722
Form: Sonata
Score: 88
Thoughts: I was quite taken back by this. Usually when I listen to a "no-name" composer, the quality is decidedly less awesome. The test of time has more or less forgotten them. But I have not ever heard of this composer before and found this fantastic. The melodies, dynamics, and dancing of the instruments was quite fantastic. Maybe I had low expectations and this surprised. Highly recommend for those that like baroque music and haven't heard this composer. It might also be the recording - sometimes awesome compositions have a crap recording and mediocre compositions have fantastic recordings and that's what makes the difference.
GRAMOPHONE: Nicholas Anderson
Quote:
Zelenka's six sonatas for two oboes, bassoon and continuo are among the most rewarding and at times most difficult pieces of baroque chamber music in the oboe repertory. Twenty years ago Heinz Holliger, Maurice Bourgue and Klaus Thunemann made a fine recording of them for Archiv. Those performances on modern instruments were followed by two other recordings during the 1980s, Burkhard Glaetzner, Ingo Goritzki and Knut Sonstevold, also playing modern instruments (Capriccio) and Paul Dombrecht, Marcel Ponseele and Danny Bond playing period instruments (Accent). All these, in their different ways were accomplished and enjoyable. But for sheer elan and spirit the baroque instrumental players on the new disc take some beating. The present recital contains only three of the six sonatas, and another volume, completing the set, is on its way. Meanwhile, this new release from Astree Auvidis is well worth acquiring. The members of Ensemble Zefiro may be known to assiduous Gramophone readers in other contexts—the bassoonist Alberto Grazzi, for instance, currently plays with The English Concert.
Zelenka's writing is sometimes highly idiosyncratic but seldom fails to engage the interest of a listener. He wrote these pieces in Vienna in about 1715 when he was in his late thirties. Technically, the writing is advanced and, as I have implied, full of character. Some of the passagework is incredibly exacting as you will quickly find out if you either sit down to listen to, or even more, to play the Allegro finale of the Sixth Sonata. Indeed, pieces demanding such virtuosity from these instruments were probably without precedent at the time. We can only speculate as to the circumstances which led to their composition but the writing is often such as to make us wonder if they were destined for friends or enemies of the composer.
Here, then, is splendidly invigorating playing of music which offers a great deal beyond face value. The sounds of the solo instruments themselves, together with an effective continuo group of double-bass, harpsichord/organ and theorbo are admirably captured in the recording.'
I stumbled onto Zelinka early in my exploration of baroque music and instantly took to him. Maybe this foreshadowed my innate love of Czech composers.
Thanks for the link as well. I think I like Zelinka even more now having heard this one; it is livelier and more expressive than the Zelinka in my collection.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
